I am the first to admit that I am a film purist/snob and was very skeptical when I heard they were remaking Footloose.

I stand (well, sit on my couch) corrected.

The 2011 Footloose was AWESOME.

I was never the biggest fan of the original, but I liked it and its soundtrack. However, I’m all sorts of in love with this remake. The soundtrack was similarly glorious (although I’ll take Kenny Loggins version of “Footloose” over Blake Shelton’s version any day of the week). But this version’s dancing was AMAZING.

It helps that Kenny Wormald is an amazing dancer.

I’m beyond grateful he was cast as Ren after Zac Efron and Chace Crawford were linked to the lead role years ago. Wormald is relatively unknown (or, *was* relatively unknown) to the masses and I think that helped for the audience to see him as Ren without any of his other roles/performances getting in the way.

The dancing in the movie was so money. There was a perfect blend of country/western line dancing and hip-hop influenced dance moves. There were sequences that were identical or at least dangerously similar to the original film, which I really appreciated. I was chatting with a friend earlier and I commented how I thought this film paid respectful homage to the original instead of just being another “oh let’s sex and crunk this up for the youth of 2011”. I loved how it opened with the original “Footloose” and I loved how it ended with the maroon suit jacket and the dance moves we all know and love by this point.

And speaking of dancing… Kenny Wormald. sdkjlfhq;wleirhwqrhfsalkdjfhasfh That boy can get it. DAMN

I was not only impressed by his dancing, but his acting. I mean, it wasn’t an Oscar-worthy performance or anything, but for this being his first lead role in a movie – damn. The kid is talented. Besides being super expressive with his body/dance moves, Wormald has super expressive eyes. (I’m a big proponent of paying specific attention to an actor’s eyes during a performance.) I half-jokingly said to my friend that Wormald’s eyes are so expressive that they are like windows into his soul. As cheesetastic as that sounds, I’m actually super serious. Between his eyes and the way he’d clench his jaw… you just knew what he was thinking/feeling. Gah… I need to see this again. Maybe I’ll convince my sister to go see it this weekend when I visit her.

Well… I’m sure I could gush more about Wormald, but Happy Endings is on and it’s a Halloween episode. Woot

Have a good one